. London Insects. 1 6 1 



spreading out into the finest network. Through 

 almost every thread of the lace, and everywhere else 

 through its body breath passes, so that the Dragon 

 Fly, as one sees it hawking in the fields or over the 

 ponds, is a whiff of living air, imprisoned in a cage of 

 muscle with gripping claws, and a head all eyes and 

 jaw. No wonder with such an outfit, and power to 

 fly backwards and sideways as easily as straight- 

 forward, it can kill right and left, and laugh at such 

 poor fliers as the Swallows. 

 Primitive man having 



" Learnt of the little Nautilus to sail, 

 Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale," 



it has been reserved, we are now told, for this genera- 

 tion to be taught that all such clumsy contrivances 

 as screws and paddles may be dispensed with if 

 builders will only apply to ships the principle of 

 propulsion which young Dragon Flies have known 

 for .thousands of years ; from times long before there 

 was a man in the world, for there are traces of 

 Dragon Flies in the rocks of very early dates. 



In "The Times " of the i;th October, 1883, is an 

 account of the trial trip of a new German ship driven 

 by hydraulic reaction on the Elbe, near Dresden. 



" Noiselessly and without any oscillation," writes 

 the Berlin correspondent, " did the large vessel 

 large as compared with the steam-craft plying on 

 that part of the river after the simple turning of a 

 lever by the captain on the bridge, commence its 

 trial-trip, stemming the current and keeping an even 

 course under the picturesque right bank of the river. 

 The only noise audible was that of the rushing of the 

 water from the tubes, fixed a little above the level of 

 the river, and nearly amidships, on both sides of the 



